
Glass F \ 

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ORATION 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



Hew-Englund Historic GenettlogiGal SoGiety, 



APRIL 19, 1895, 



TO COMMEMORATE ITS 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY. 



By 
CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN, A.M. 

WITH ADDRESSES BV 

WILLIAM CLAFLIN, LL.D., the President; GEORGE F. HOAR, LL.D. 
AND CURTIS GUILD, Esq., and a poem by OLIVER B. STEBBINS, Esq. 




BOSTON : 
PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY. 

M D C C C X C V . 



1. Gli 

N. E. Hist. Gonl. 3 oj. 



PRESS OF 

ROCKWELL AND CHURCHILL 
BOSTON 



THE COMMEMORATION. 



At the stated meeting of the New-England Historic Genea- 
logical Society, held on 6 December, 1893, on motion of Oliver 
Bliss Stebbins, Esq., it was 

Voted: That the Council of the Society be requested to 
consider the expediency of, and, if deemed desirable, to propose 
to the Society, some plan for the celebration of the Society's 
jubilee, or fiftieth anniversary, which occurs sometime in the 
ensuing year. 

The Council deemed it prudent to await the completion of 
the extension of the Society's building, 18 Somerset street, for 
which plans were already in preparation ; but, that the propo- 
sition might not slumber, the Council, at its session on 2 April, 
1894, on motion of John Ward Dean, A.M., 

Voted : That the Treasurer, David Greene Haskins, Jr., A.M., 
and the Secretary be a committee to consider the question of 
celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the New-England Historic 
Genealogical Society. 

At the session of the Council held on 31 December, 1894, 
this committee made a verbal report, when the Council added 
Messrs. Charles Carleton Coffin, A.M., and Capt. Albert Alonzo 
Folsom to -the committee. 

At the session of the Council in February, 1895, this com- 
mittee reported : 

That the Society celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of its 
incorporation, 18 March, 1845, by an oration at the Old South 
Meeting House in Boston, on 19 April, 1895. 

That the Hon. Charles Carleton Coffin, A.M., be invited to 
deliver the oration. 



4 N. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 

That the Society appoint a committee, with full ])Owers, to 
complete the arrangements, including invitations to the Governor 
of the Commonwealth and leading citizens, a dinner, and such 
other exercises as the committee may deem expedient. 

This report the Council by unanimous vote accepted and 
adopted. 

This action being reported to the Society, at its stated meet- 
ing, 6 February, 1895, it was accepted, and it was 

Voted : To adopt the recommendation of the Council regard- 
ing the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of the Society's 
incorporation, except as to date, which is left to the determina- 
tion of the committee. 

Voted: That the Hon. Charles Carleton Coffin, A.M., be 
invited to deliver the oration. 

Voted : That a committee of five be appointed, by the chair, 
to determine the day for the celebration, and to complete all 
necessary arrangements, with such other exercises as they may 
deem expedient. 

The chair appointed as this committee Capt. Albert Alonzo 
Folsom, Chairman; Hon. Thomas Weston, A.M., Benjamin 
Barstow Torrey, Esq., Oliver Bliss Stebbins, Esq., Myles 
Standish, A.M., M.D. 

The committee duly organized, completed its arrangements 
for commemorative exercises in accordance with the vote of the 
Council, and issued the following announcement : 



New-England Historic Genealogical Society, 

Boston, March 25, 1895. 

Mr. 

You are cordially invited to attend the Fiftieth Anniversary 
of the formation of the New-England Historic Genealogical 
Society, to be held at the Old South Meeting House (Wash- 
ington street) on the 19th day of April, at ten o'clock. 

Hon. Charles Carleton Coffin will give an address. Brief 
speeches may be expected by representatives of the Massachu- 
setts Historical Society, the Bostonian Society, the American 
Antiquarian Society, the Pilgrim Society of Plymouth, and 
others. 



FIFTIETH ANNIVEKSARY ORATION. 5 

It is very desirable that all the resident members of the 
Society should be present upon this interesting anniversary. 

The Committee of Airangements hope to have the pleasure 
of seeing you upon that occasion. 

Albert A. Folsom, 
Thoinias Weston, 
Benjamin B. Torrey, 
Oliver B. Stebbins, 
Myles Standish, M.D., 
Committee. 

The exercises in observance of this Commemoration were 
held in the Old South Meeting House, Boston, on the morning 
of Friday, 19 April, 1895, the Hon. William Clafiin, Ex- 
Governor of Massachusetts and President of the Society, occu- 
pying the chair. On the platform with the President were 
seated the Rev. Alonzo Ames Miner, D.D., Chaplain of the day ; 
the Hon. Charles Carleton Coffin, A.M., the Orator of the occa- 
sion ; Oliver Bliss Stebbins, Esq., the Poet of the observances ; 
Curtis Guild, Esq., President of the Bostonian Society ; the Hon. 
George Frisbie Hoar, LL.D., Senator of the United States : 
Capt, Albert Alonzo Folsom, Chairman of the Committee of 
Arrangements, and the Recording Secretary of the Society. 
In the large audience were many gentlemen and ladies dis- 
tinguished as citizens in the fields of literature, art, politics, 
and religion. 

The President in opening the exercises briefly rehearsed the 
work of the Society thus far in its career. 

The Rev- Alonzo Ames Miner, D.D., invoked the divine 
blessing. The Hon. Charles Carleton Coffin, A.M., delivered 
the oration, and Oliver Bliss Stebbins, Esq., read a poem. 

The Hon. George Frisbie Hoar presented the salutations of 
the American Antiquarian Society, in the absence of the Hon. 
Stephen Salisbury, its President ; and Curtis Guild, Esq., Presi- 
dent of the Bostonian Society, tendered the congratulations 
of that Society. 

Letters were read from Charles Francis Adams, Esq., Presi- 
dent of the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Rev. Lucius 



6 N. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 

Robinson Paige, D.D. (now in his ninety-fourth year), the oldest 
member of the Society, and others, regretting their unavoidable 
absence. 

At their conclusion, the President closed the meeting with 
an expression of congratulation on it« success. 

It was noteworthy that the speakers were all resident 
members of the Society. 

GEO. A. GORDON, 

Recording Secretary. 



FIFTIETH iVI^NIVERSARY ORATION. 



ADDRESS OF THE HON. WILLIAM CLAFLIN, LL.D. 



aentlemen of the Netv-England Historic aenealogical Society: 

This Society was founded by men who felt a deep interest ni 
history and genealogy, especially the history and genealogy of 
New England, which they thought should be preserved for 
public use now, and for all coming time. The Society began with 
small resources, and its members were few ; but they persevered 
in the work, conscious that the object was most worthy and 
that, in time, the public would rally to it^ support. The abor 
has been arduous, and those who have long toiled in this labor 
have not sought pecuniary reward. They have performed then- 
duty faithfully, as they loved the work. Most valuable services 
have been rendered by the various committees from year to 
vear They deserve and they receive the grateful thanks ot 
the members who use the library in the Society's house or at 

their homes. . ^ ^^^^ 

By slow degrees the Society's funds have mcreased, enablmg 
it to secure a valuable and convenient location. More room was 
needed for the storage of books and for its pubhc meetings, 
and to meet this end an addition was made the past year, altord- 
ing facilities for both purposes for many years to come, ihe 
Council would have been glad to have covered all th? estate, 
when making the change, if its funds would have justified the 

"""f Tongratulate the Society upon the results of its labors. It 
can look with confidence to the future. Its work will con- 
stantly enlarge, and it is hoped that its members and friends 
will increase in proportion, enabling it to meet the demands of 

coming; generations. ,111 

It seemed to the Council especially fitting and proper to hold 
its semi-centennial anniversary on this day, so sacred m the 
annals of American history. It is the purposeof the Society 
to keep alive the memory of the events which led to the 



8 N. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 

iiulependeiice of the country. The attempt of the king's forces 
to seize the stores gathered by the patriots at Concord, one 
hundred and twenty years ago, was a turning-point in the long 
contest with the king for supremacy. Up to this time there was 
great doubt in the minds of the patriot leaders whether or not 
the people would resist, by force of arms, the British troops, 
should they attempt to destroy the ammunition and other war- 
like material in various places. The fight at Lexington and 
Concord settled that question then and there forever. 

" Here once the embattled farmers stood 
And fired the shot heard round the world." 

We cannot do too much towards keeping alive the memory 
of those men who gave themselves and all they held dear for 
the freedom of the country. 

It is my privilege and pleasure to present to you the Hon. 
ChA-HLES Carleton CoFFiisr, as the orator of the day. 



ORATION. 

By THE Hon. Charles Carleton Coffin. 



ORATION. 



On the evening of Nov. 1, 1844, five gentlemen of tliis city 
organized themselves into a society for historical and genea- 
logical research. The following spring they received an act of 
incorporation from the Commonwealth. On this Patriots' Day 
we commemorate that event. 

The Society had small beginnings. The collection of material 
during the year 1845 consisted of twenty-four bound volumes, 
ten manuscripts, six plans, one old lease, four bound volumes of 
the " Independent Chronicle " newspaper, 1804-1811, one hun- 
dred and eighty-five pamphlets, and a wheelbarrow load of the 
sermons preached by the Rev. Dr. Joseph Eckley, pastor of 
the Old South Church. During the year thirty-seven gentle- 
men were enrolled as members. 

The o-entlemen who laid the foundations of this institution 
were animated by a lofty ideal. No pecuniary gain was to come 
to them. They could not hope to receive the applause of the 
multitude. Whatever effort they might make would be for 
others' benefit. Time and money given would be for those who 
might come after them. Their successors have been men of like 
character. From such small beginning the New-England 
Historic Genealogical Society has become the foremost of its 
kind in the Republic. It was founded with a noble purpose 
to make it in the highest sense a beneficent institution. Like 
the gospel of the New Testament, it was to bestow its blessings 
without money and without price. Its doors are wide open to 
all. The volumes upon its shelves are free to every one. Be- 
fore the establishment of the present magnificent Pubhc Libraiy 
of this city, the library of this Society was open to the public 
in the spirit of Him who, eighteen centuries ago, said, " I am 
among you as one that serveth." 

It has no endowment from commonwealth or city, no 
revenue from shareholders. It is sustained by individuals who 
annually contribute their moiety through their appreciation 



12 2f. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 

of the value of such an institution to the public, and by funds 
established by those who gave liberally while living, or re- 
membered it in their last wills and testaments. Two gentle- 
men have in that manner rendered great and conspicuous 
service : Marshall Pinckney Wilder, for many years our presi- 
dent, and William Blanchard Towne, for a long time our 
treasurer, through whose efforts liberal sums were obtained 
by subscription. During the last quarter of a century $45,125 
have been given for a building fund, and $14,075 for the 
support of the librarian. In addition Mr. Wilder, a short time 
before his death, secured a subscription of $25,400. The entire 
amount received by subscription has been between $80,000 and 
$90,000. This, together with the annual fees of members, 
constitute the chief resources of the Society. With such slender 
means, with gifts of volumes and documents from individuals, 
the Society has made its library a valuable and attractive in- 
stitution, not only to the people of this Commonwealth, but 
to the entire country. Pilgrims from all sections of the Union 
enter its doors, sit at its tables, and consult its volumes, to 
obtain information from its archives enriched with historic and 
genealogic lore, not to be found in any other institution in this 
Western Hemisphere. 

The Society has been signally fortunate in being the recipient 
of the letters and papers of Gen. Henry Knox, given by his 
grandson, the late Rear Admiral Henry Knox Thatcher, who, 
during the later years of his life, took great interest in promoting 
the welfare of the Society. 

Among the documents are letters written by Washington, 
Lafayette, Greene, Lincoln, Wayne, Steuben, Rufus King, and 
the officers of Rochambeau's army. The manuscripts number 
between 11,000 and 12,000, filling fifty-five massive folio vol- 
umes of priceless value. 

The bound volumes of the library number between 20,000 
and 30,000. No exact enumeration of the pamphlets of the 
Society has been made, but a conservative estimate will place 
them as exceeding 50,000. The Society is also in possession of 
a valuable collection of other manuscripts. 

The meagre funds at the disposal of the Society are utterly 
inadequate to enable the librarian to exhibit the great value of 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY ORATION. 13 

the historical treasures. It is to be hoped that ways and means 
will ere long be found to place the lore of the Society within 
reach of the public, that large-hearted men of ample fortune 
will give of their abundance to that end. 

All but one of the nearly four hundred historical societies in 
this country have been formed during this century. The Massa- 
chusetts Historical Society was organized in the year 1791, fol- 
lowed by that of New York, in 1804 ; Maine, in 1822 ; New 
Hampshire, in 1823. It was in keeping with the genius of the 
period that the men who made history during the Revolution, 
who laid the foundation of government, and brought about a 
new era in human affairs, should desire to preserve the records 
of what had been accomplished. The formation of historical 
societies was a natural sequence to the founding of the Republic. 

This Society was the first to collect and publish information 
relating to the founding of American families. Individuals had 
traced their descent from English ancestors during preceding 
decades, but not till the founding of this Society had there been 
any organized means for genealogical research. Indeed, there 
had been no great desire on the part of the people of tins 
country to trace their connection with English ancestors. They 
had not wholly forgotten the bitterness of the struggle for in- 
dependence, nor the later conflict between the two countries. 
In my boyhood the one common enemy was the hated " red-coat," 
the " lobster " of the days of the Revolution. The thistles by 
the woodside waving their red tasselled plumes, with their prick- 
ing bayonets, were regarded as fit representatives of the odious 
British, and we young American boys, with patriotic ardor 
remembering what our grandfathers accomplished at Bunker 
Hill and Bennington, with sticks or wooden swords charged 
upon the enemy and mowed down the bristling ranks. 

During the early years of the century there was little pride 
of ancestry in the American people. As a nation we were an- 
imated by a patriotic provincialism which almost s])urned an 
alliance with our transatlantic ancestry. By establishing a 
government of the people we had inaugurated a new era in 
political affairs, and were justly proud of what had been accom- 
plished. The influence of the Republic of the Western Hemi- 
sphere had made itself felt among the nations of the Old World, 



14 N. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY." 

notably in the French Revolution. The American citizen re- 
joiced in his political and individual independence. He spurned 
monarchy, primogeniture, and entail as repugnant to republican 
ideas. Medii^val ideas had been cast aside, as antagonistic to 
the rights and needs of a citizen of the Republic. Why, then, 
should he concern himself about an ancestry crumbling to dust 
in foreign churchyards ? 

During the last half of the century this intense individualism 
and narrow provincialism has given place to nobler ideals. To- 
day we revere, not only those who one hundred and twenty 
years ago on this 19th of April, on Lexington Common and at 
Concord Bridge, inaugurated a new departure in political gov- 
ernments by their resistance to tyranny, but we also honor our 
libertj^-loving English ancestors who stood with Cromwell at 
Edgehill and Marston Moor, and those sturdy barons who 
compelled King John to sign his name to Magna Charta at 
Runnymede. We have cast aside the prejudices of former years 
and risen to serener heights. In these daj^s we esteem it an 
honor to claim an alliance by lineage and language with the 
English-speaking race wherever found — a race which stands 
foremost in an advancing civilization. We rejoice that we are 
kin to a nation which has produced Chaucer, Shakespeare, 
Milton, Bacon, Newton, Scott, Burns, Dickens, George Eliot, 
and Gladstone. 

The century has, in like manner, witnessed a marvellous 
change of opinion in Great Britain in relation to this Republic. 
Until that summer morning in 1812, when the frigate ••' Consti- 
tution " sent the " Guerriere " to the bottom of the sea, the 
British regarded the " Yankee " with contempt ; but the con- 
tempt was succeeded by astonishment as one after another of 
England's frigates lowered its flag to the Stars and Stripes. 
The astonishment has been changed to respect in these later 
years. A few years before the organization of this Society, 
Sidney Smith could sneeringiy ask, " Who reads an American 
book ? " To-day, in every hamlet of England you ma}^ purchase 
at a wayside stall volumes of Emerson, Hawthorne, Longfellow, 
Whittier, Holmes, Lowell, and Harriet Beecher Stowe. The 
Englishman in the closing decade of the century regards it as 
an honor to be related by kin with a people that has produced 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY ORATION. 15 

a Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, 
and Sheridan, Since 1865 John Bnll has recognized Jonathan 
not only as a relative by kinship, but as a brother worthy of 
honor and respect. To-day there is mutual regard and hearty 
hospitality on both sides of the Atlantic. 

With this growth of respect there has come a desire on the 
part of many people in this country to connect themselves 
with their ancestry in England. Since the organization of this 
Society there has been a marked development of what may 
be termed the historic sentiment, manifest by the formation 
of historical societies, and notably by the publication of 
State, town, and family histories. Nearly every State of the 
Union has its State society. In this city of Boston the historic 
sentiment has erected tablets upon the burial-grounds of the 
Colonial period, and has been active in the preservation of the 
public buildings of that period — ■ Faneuil Hall, the Old State 
House, and this edifice, the latter largely through the munifi- 
cence and patriotism of Mary Hemenway of blessed memory. 
The writer of the Apocalypse in his ecstatic apotheosis of the 
righteous dead exclaimed, "Blessed are the dead who die in 
the Lord, for their works do follow them." Mary Hemenway 
has entered upon the larger life, but her works are following 
her, in the Old South historical lectureship repeated in Chicago, 
Philadelphia, and Brooklyn. Through her patriotic and his- 
toric sentiment we are assembled here to-day in this building, 
dedicated evermore to human freedom. 

The growth of this historic sentiment is manifest also in the 
interest awakened throughout the country in the historic locali- 
ties already named. Last summer witnessed the coming of a 
band of pilgrims from far distant States, to receive new inspira- 
tion by standing where Samuel Adams had stood in this edifice ; 
to linger in Faneuil Hall, beholding the portraits of those who 
have done great things for their fellow-men ; to gaze upon the 
memorials in the Old State House ; to climb Bunker Hill, and 
hear the story of what took place there on a summer day in 
1775 ; to visit Lexington common, where, on this April morn, 
one hundred and twenty years ago, the minute-men dared to 
confront the red-coats, and Concord, where the men of Acton, 
with their hair powdered by Hannah Davis, that they might 



16 N. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 

meet the British as gentlemen, marched down the hill with the 
men from Sudbury and Concord, keeping step to Luther Blaiich- 
ard's fifing of the " White Cockade," and beneath the elms of 
North Bridge fired the volley whose vibration has sent kingly 
thrones toppling to the ground. One hundred and twenty years 
ago this morning Lord Percy's troops marched towards Lexing- 
toa to the tune of " Yankee Doodle " played in derision of the 
minute-men ; to-day all the nations of Europe are marking time 
to that melody. Need we wonder, then, that men and women, ani- 
mated by a lofty patriotism, become pilgrims to these historic 
scenes ? The coming summer will behold an army fifty thou- 
sand strong thronging our streets, gathering within these walls, 
ascending Bunker Hill, visiting Lexington and Concord. The 
historic sentiment in its essence must be patriotic, and the 
patriotic ever becomes historic. Because our fatliers loved 
liberty above all things else, we have Lexington and Concord, and 
this venerable edifice, with its associations. Take awa}^ the asso- 
ciations, and it would only be a pile of brick and mortar given 
over to trade ; but now, henceforth, and forever it is to be elo- 
quent for liberty to myriads of the human race. 

The growth of the historic sentiment has been manifest in a 
remarkable degree since the close of the War of the Rebellion, 
in the publication by the Government of the Union and Confed- 
erate records ; the issuing of regimental and other histories ; b}^ 
the preservation on the part of the Government of several of the 
great battlefields. 

In the summer of 1884 a company of ladies and gentlemen 
of this Commonwealth visited Gettysburg. At that time a 
single monument, erected by the State of Pennsylvania, to- 
gether with one erected by the Government of the United 
States, and a tablet set up by the Second Massachusetts Regi- 
ment, were the only memorials of that conflict. A thought 
came to one of the visitors that the Commonwealth of Massa- 
chusetts was rich enough, and should be patriotic enough, to 
aid each regiment and battery from this State engaged in tliat 
conflict to rear its memorial. Having been elected a member 
of the Legislature, his thought crystallized in the form of a reso- 
lution, appropriating five hundred dollars to each organization, 
which was unanimously adopted, and given validity by the 



FIFTIETH ANKIVEr.SAP.Y ORATION. 17 

Governor. The example of this Commonwealth has been fol- 
lowed by all the States having troops in that battle, and to-dajs 
Gettysburg, the turning-point of the greatest civil war of all 
time, is tlie grandest of all mausoleums, commemorating what 
was accomplished there for freedom. 

With tender regard for those who gave their lives that this 
government of the people might not perish from the earth, 
national cemeteries have been established on all the great battle- 
fields. Historic sentiment has set the white marble head-stone 
by every grave, recording the regiment of which the fallen hero 
was a member. No other nation has ever rendered such honoi 
to its heroic dead. In no other country, no other age, has there 
been such a union of historic and patriotic sentiment. The age 
is not altogether given over to material things. The Hag of our 
country waves from many thousand school-houses ; millions of 
boys and girls have saluted it this present week with reverent 
words and patriotic song. 

The act of incorporation designates this as the New-England 
Historic Genealogical Society. The five gentlemen who or- 
ganized it regarded the six States east of the Hudson as a 
domain sufficiently ample for historic and genealogic research. 
To-day the western horizon of the Society is the Pacific Ocean. 
With good reason the men wlio founded it, fifty years ago, 
regarded New England as sufficiently large for a society with 
such aims and objects as it then had in view. There was little 
alliance by kin with their neighbors across the Hudson. The 
ancestry of our people came chiefiy from England ; the other, 
largely from Holland. With equal good reason to-day the 
domain of the Society extends to the farthest limit of the Re- 
public. The influence of New England upon this continent 
may be classified with that energy which made the Athenian 
state the vitalizing force in Grecian civilization, and with Judea 
in the Hebrew theocracy. The compact of the " Mayflower," 
the first bud of the new political economy in tliis Western 
world, expanding into the government of this State, has had 
its consummate flowering in the Constitution of the United 
States. Within the domain of this Commonwealth was inau- 
gurated the revolution which brought about the new era 
in government. From New England they who had achieved 



18 N. B. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 

independence crossed the Alleglianies, to lay the foundation of 
a new State on the banks of the Ohio, at Marietta. From that 
hour to the present time the sons and daughters of New Eng- 
hxnd have been establishing other States, opening windows in 
the forests of Michigan, speeding the plough in Illinois and 
Iowa, making the prairies of the West the granary of the 
world. 

The o-enius of New England has manifested itself in establish- 
ing public schools, academies, colleges, churches, charitable and 
benevolent associations. It was a missionary to the Oregon 
Indians, the Rev. Marcus Whitman, who, in his patriotic zeal, 
made the mid-winter journey from Walla-Walla to Washington, 
suffering terrible hardship, who saved Oregon and Washington 
to the Republic. It was the sailors of the New England mari- 
time towns of Cape Cod and Cape Ann who manned the ships 
that bore the gold-seekers around Cape Horn to tlie Eldorado 
of the Pacific slope in '49 — sailors who abandoned the sea, 
became citizens, and made California a free State of the 
Union. 

From this old Commonwealth went forth the resolute men 
who o"ave freedom to Kansas, and sounded the death-knell of 
slavery. Historians in these later years have recognized the 
eneroizing influence of New England in the civilization of the 
nation. It is the aim, therefore, of this Society to gather up 
whatever will illuminate the history of this force which has 
given such vitality to the civilization of the Republic. It is to 
be hoped that large m^ans will be forthcoming to enable the 
Society to secure all histories of States, towns, families, and 
individuals; that within its doors, those making historic and 
o-enealogical research shall be able to obtain all possible infor- 
mation. 

It has been the aim of this Society not only to collect but to 
diffuse information. Since Jan. 1, 1847, every three months, 
the " New-England Historical and Genealogical Register " has 
been published. Its forty-eight volumes, i^plete with liistor- 
ical, genealogical, and biographical data, are of inestimable 
value. Coming generations wdl turn to them as a miser to his 
hoard of gold, as a bibliomaniac to an illuminated missal of 
the medisBval ages. Tlie Society has been singularly fortunate 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY ORATION. 19 

in its editors. Among these I have but to mention the names of 
Samuel G. Drake, John Ward Dean, and Albert II. Hoyt. The 
first named has passed on to the great majority, but his works 
remain. He needs no other monument than his works, which 
are to be found in every historical library of the land. Mr. 
Dean still continues hale, yigovous, fourscore years young, every 
day bestowing full information to ardent inquirers. Each re- 
turning three months the world is made richer by his contribu- 
tions. Mr. Hoyt is still active as chairman of the Committee 
on Publications. 

For more than half a century the Rev. Lucius R. Paige, D.D., 
has been an honored member of this organization. In behalf 
of this Society, I extend to Mr. Dean and to Dr. Paige its 
hearty congratulations, with the hope that their lives may still 
be rounded with many years. 

History is a record of events ; in its largest sense, it is the 
philosophy of human action. From the days of Herodotus to 
the present century historians were mainly content to chronicle 
events; in contrast, the historian of to-day traces events to 
their antecedent causes, seeks to discern their meaning, and uses 
them as a horoscope of the future. No longer is the muse of 
history a mere analyst, but she stands as a white-robed prophet, 
forecasting huinan destiny. 

The half-century that has passed since the formation of this 
Society has been distinguished by great changes in political and 
civil affairs. Not the least of the notable events has been the 
extension of the domain comprising the present Republic. 
During the winter of 1844-5, while Charles Ewer, Samuel 
Gardner Drake, John Wingate Thornton, Lemuel Shattuck, and 
William Henry Montague were organizing this Society, the 
Congress of the United States was discussing the question 
of the annexation of Texas, whicli had revolted from Mexico 
and established its independence. On March 1, 1845, the an- 
nexation, so far as the United States was concerned, was accom- 
plished by the signature of President Tyler. The act was 
ratified by Texas the following July, and was quickly followed 
by the advance of the United States troops to the Rio Grande. 
Momentous events have come from these acts, — the war with 
Mexico, and the acquisition by the United States of a vast 



20 N. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 

region of territory. The impelling force was tlie determination 
of a slave oligarchy to per])etuate its political [)o\ver. But He 
who guides the nations to their destiny had Tlis own phms for 
the future of this Western world. From the days of Hernando 
C'ortez, California, liad shnnbered under Spanish and Mexican 
inertia ; hut the Stars and Stripes were waving on the banks of 
the Sacramento on January 19, 1848, when James W. Marshall, 
digging a mill-race for James A. Sutter, first beheld shining 
particles in the sandy soil and wondered what the " stuff" might 
be. In the divine plan that shovelful of earth was an all-im- 
]:)ortant agent to give direction to human affaii's. With it began 
the struggle between Freedom and Slavery for supremacy in the 
affairs of the nation. For threescore years, from the adoption 
of the Constitution in 1787, by which slaves were counted in 
the basis for representation, the slaveholders had controlled the 
Government. With that shovelful of earth began the upsetting 
of their plan, and the unfolding of the divine plan for tlie wel- 
fare of the human race. Little did James W. Marshall com- 
prehend what would come from those shining particles of yellow 
sand — a rush of emigrants from all lands ; the lising of a great 
city; a railroad across Darien, others across the continent; a 
new departure in finance throughout the world ; the greatest 
civil war of all the ages ; Gettysburg and Appomattox ; freedom 
and citizenship for four millions of slaves ; the redemption of 
the Republic ; a new civilization. 

A half-century ago, Mexico, though our near neighbor 
geographically, in everything else was far away. The com- 
mercial relations between the United States and that country 
were of little account. Though nominally a republic it had 
no stable government ; military adventurers became despots — 
revolution succeeding revolution. From the day of its subju- 
gation by Cortez, the ecclesiastical power, under the law of 
mortmain, the hand which grasped the property of dying men, 
had appropriated to itself by far the most valuable portion of 
the real estate of that country. Being the property of the 
Church, it paid no taxes. The burden of taxation Avas crushing 
out the life of the nation ; there could be no jirogress to a 
people lield in subjection by an ecclesiasticism that appropriated 
to itself nearly all the revenues of the country. Buena Vista, 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY ORATION. 21 

Chapultepec, the entrance of the troops of the United States 
into the city of Mexico, the loss of nearly one-half of its do- 
mains, were humiliating events ; but out of that humiliation came 
the resurrection of a new republic, the subsequent sequestration 
of the estates of the clergy, a new constitution, the beginning 
of a reformed church, war between the clericals and patriots. 
Juarez was declared constitutional President in 1858, while 
Miramon was made President by the Church jimto. In conse- 
quence of the latter seizing six hundred thousand dollars set 
aside to pay interest on bonds held in Europe, and in order to 
establish a stable government, England, France, and Spain 
united in sending an expedition to Vera Cruz. 

The flag of this country had just been humiliated at Sumter, 
and the Southern Confederacy established. The London 
" Times " newspaper voiced the sentiment of all the adherents 
of monarchical institutions when it said that the Great Republic 
had ceased to exist. From its establishment in 1787, crowned 
heads the world over had deprecated the existence of this gov- 
ernment of the people, and its influence upon other nations. 
Great Britain with indecent haste, before Charles Francis 
Adams, newly appointed Minister to that country, could cross 
the Atlantic, had recognized the Confederates as belligerents, 
and British merchants were supplying them with arms and 
munitions of war. The ruling and mercantile classes of that 
nation, almost without exception, gave their sympathies to the 
Confederacy. 

With the humiliation of the Stars and Stripes at Sumter, with 
the landing of French troops at Vera Cruz, the dream of em- 
pire came to Louis Napoleon, Emperor of the French, who re- 
garded himself as a man of destiny, chosen by divine Providence 
to reestablish Latin supremacy in this Western Hemisphere. 

It is not probable that the historian of the future will ever be 
able to set forth all the agencies brought into play in the attempt 
to carry out the Napoleonic idea. This much, however, is known, 
that Miramon, the exiled president of the church party in 
Mexico, by the gift of several millions in bonds to Jecker, a 
banker in Switzerland, and by the gift of several other millions to 
De Morny, half-brother to Napoleon III., by the influence of 
the Archbishop of Mexico with the head of the Cliurch in Rome, 



22 N. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. |^ 

to recover the confiscated estates, by awakening the ambition 
of Maximilian of Austria, as a true son of the Church, and of 
Carlotta and Eugenie, as devoted daughters of the Church, all 
unitedly encouraging the emperor to make his dream a reality, 
Maxiniilian was seated upon the throne of the Montezumas. 
On June 10, 1863, the soldiers of France, under Bazaine, entered 
the city of Mexico. 

In the United States the battle of Antietam had been suc- 
ceeded by the slaughter of Fredericksburg and the disaster at 
Chancellorsville. The British-built Confederate cruiser " Ala- 
bama " was lighting the ocean with the flames of merchant 
vessels belonging to the Northern States. A great Confederate 
army was marching down the Shenandoah valley to invade 
Pennsylvania, seize Washington, float the stars and bars above 
the dome of the national capitol, and carry their victorious flag 
to the city of New York. Throughout the North a great 
political party was demanding peace at any price, and Abraham 
Lincoln was being denounced as a blood-thirsty tyrant for 
having issued a proclamation giving freedom to four million 
slaves. Upon the other side of the Atlantic Mr. Roebuck, mem- 
ber of Parliament, was in Paris in conference with the emperor to 
bring about united recognition of the Confederacy, and by that 
act crush the United States. Lord Palmerston, the premier, 
determined, however, to wait a little till the Confederates had 
won a victory on Northern soil. The news came of Gettysburg, 
and that the Confederacy had been cut in twain by Grant at 
Vicksburg. Thenceforth there could be no more conferences 
between Mason and Lord John Russell, Slidell and Louis 
Napoleon. A few months later came Appomattox, then the 
movement of an army under General Sheridan to the banks of 
the Rio Grande, the firm and courteous letter of Secretary 
Seward, and the withdrawal of the troops of France from 
Mexico. So the dream of empire faded away. Then was heard 
that volley of musketry at Orizaba, where Maximilian met his 
fate. Four years passed; then came Sedan and the gleam 
of the spiked helmet in Paris, the burning of the Tuileries, 
and out of its ashes the rising of the new Republic of France. 
To-day, Carlotta in a mad-house and Eugenie in her habili- 
ments of mourning are all that remain of the Napoleonic dream. 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY ORATION. 23 

To-day, Mexico is our near neighbor, feeling the tlmll of a 
new life through its political and commercial relations with 
this republic. 

The half-century has also witnessed another notable event 
in this Western Hemisphere — the overthrow of monarchy in 
Brazil, and the establishment of a government of the people. 

There have been great changes in other lands. Fifty years 
ago the civilized world at times was reminded that in the far 
Orient a nation was living by itself alone, holding no commu- 
nication with the great majority of the human race — a people 
who hated Christian civilization. The geography of my boy- 
hood pictured a procession of Japanese trampling upon a cross, 
the emljlem of Western civilization. Once a year a vessel 
bearing the flag of Holland was allowed to drop anchor 
in one of its seaports, but no foreigner was permitted to set 
foot upon the soil of the hermit nation ; no Japanese could 
leave the empire to visit other lands. It was reserved to 
the United States, not by force of arms, l:)ut by persistent firm- 
ness and kindness, to open the gates of the empire to the in- 
fluences of Western civilization. To-day Japan is the radiant 
queen of the Orient. 

In the historic evolution we see the sailor-citizens of Nantucket 
factors in this dramatic resurrection of a nation from a dead 
past to a new and vigorous life. It was in 1791, four years 
after the adoption of the Constitution, which made the United 
States a homogeneous political body, that a Nantucket sea-captain, 
searching for the sperm whale, doubled Cape Horn and began 
to reap the harvest of the Pacific. The sea-captains of that island 
became explorers and discoverers, searching every nook and 
corner, bay and harbor, from the Arctic to Antarctic seas. Some 
of the vessels, doubling Cape Horn, never returned, but suffered 
shij)wreck on the sunken rocks off the Japanese coasts. The 
crews, escaping to the shore, were regarded as invaders and 
hustled to prison to die a lingering death, or, if by chance surviv- 
ing hardship, were given over to a Dutch shipmaster, through 
whose kindness they might be taken to Batavia and from thence 
enabled to reach home. 

Possibly we may never know who first conceived the idea 
of compelling Japan to give asylum to shipwrecked seamen. 



24 N. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 

It seems probable tliat the great niovemeiitof emigrants in 1849, 
and the un[)aralleled development of California, led Daniel 
Webster, Secretary of State under President Fillmore, to 
ponder the future of this Ilepublic in its relation to the 
Orient, and take measures for fitting out an expedition which 
subsequently sailed under Commodore Perry. From the close 
of the Revolution the ships of Boston and Salem had been 
doubling the Cape of Good Hope, freighted with tea from 
Canton and silk from Nanking. Commerce with China and 
Manila Avas increasing. It was seen that the rise of a new 
State on the Pacific shore must inevitably lead to a great in- 
crease of trade in that direction. Commercial relations rather 
than any purely philanthropic motive doubtless animated 
the Government in sending out ship-loads of the industrial prod- 
ucts of this country as gifts to the long-slumbering nation. 
The outcome of that expedition is without a parallel in human 
history. 

From the records of all time there will not be found another 
such resurrection as that of the Empire of Japan from a dead 
past to its present vigorous national life. To-day, China with 
its four hundred millions of people bows at the feet of the 
young queen of the Orient. Beyond any other nation this 
Republic has been influential in giving direction to the course 
of civilization in the Mikado's empire. It seems prob- 
able that in the near future there nuist be some momentous 
change in China ; that the enlightened men of that country 
must see that railroads, telegraphs, and the printing-press — 
that the living forces of Occidental civilization are more potent 
than generations of dead ancestors to promote the well-being of 
a nation. China to-day is chained to a dead past, worshipping 
the virtues of ancestors slumbering in the multitudinous grave- 
yards dotting the vast empire. No railroads thread its valleys 
giving vitality to commerce. The lumbering junk, witli its 
bamboo lateen sail, is an appropriate emblem of the long- 
slumbering empire. In Japan the whistle of the locomotive 
awakens the echoes of the matchless mountain Fujiama, piercing 
the sky with its ethereal whiteness. The locomotive, the print- 
ing-press, the public school, have given new life and power to 
the nation. With such an example at her doors, China must of 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY ORATION. 25 

necessity cast off the cerements of the dead past and rise to a 
new national life. 

Let us not forget that it was a son of Massachusetts who, since 
the formation of this Society, was appointed Minister to China 
— Anson Burlingame. Being impressed with the future possible 
greatness of that ancient land of Sinim, he resigned his American 
citizenship, and liecame an official of the empire, that he might 
more effectually wield his influence in giving direction to its 
future civilization, predicting that the time woukl come when the 
emblem of Western civilization — the shining cross — would be 
reared in its valleys and upon its verdure-crowned hills. Should 
such be the ultimate outcome, the future historian will trace 
the advancement back to that peaceful mission of the war-ships 
of this Republic under Commander Perry to the secluded 
nation of the Orient, to-day taking its position in the ranks of 
the most favored nations. 

The half-century that has elapsed since the formation of 
this Society has witnessed a great change among the nations of 
Europe — the political unification of people speaking a common 
language. From 1815, after Napoleon I. became an exile to St. 
Helena, to 1859, the people speaking the Italian language were 
divided into a half-dozen petty kingdoms, ruled by Bourbons 
dominated by reactionary ideas. Then came the great men of 
modern Italian historj^ — Victor Emmanuel, Mazzini, Cavour, 
Garibaldi ; the tumbling of puppets from their thrones ; separation 
of Church and State ; the rise of the people and the unification 
of the nation. E(^n ally notable has been the coming together of 
the German-speaking people under the leadership of Bismarck. 

In no other age has there been such an advancement in 
applied science as during the half-century since the formation of 
this Societ3^ In 1814, railways extended from Boston eastward 
to Portland ; northward to Concord, N.H. ; westward to Buffalo. 
In the transmission of information, the first electric telegraph 
had just been constructed between Washington and Baltimore. 
To-day the world is belted with railways, and all lands are united 
by the telegraph. Scarcely twenty years have elapsed since the 
invention of the telephone, and now, though our friends may be 
one thousand miles away, we converse with them as familiarly 
as if they were by our side. 



26 N. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 

One of tlie most notable changes of the half-century is that 
which has come to the female sex, in education, occupation, in- 
fluence, and power. In the years preceding the present century 
the sentiment of the world, if not actively opposed to the edu- 
cation of woman, certainly did not favor her acquisition of in- 
tellectual attainments. The public school was for boys and not 
for girls. Diligent research fails to discover a single instance of 
the attendance of girls in a public school prior to the beginning 
of the present centur3^ Abigail and Hannah Adams, Dorothy 
Quincy, and their associates, the favored few of the Revolution- 
ary period, were taught reading, arithmetic, and their accidence 
by the parish minister, or some tutor in the family home. The 
proposition to admit girls to the public school, like many other 
things, was strenuously opposed as an uncalled for and danger- 
ous innovation detrimental to public morals. 

The second decade of the century witnessed the beginning of 
Sunday-schools. The proposition to gather the children of the 
parish in a school on Sunday, even to recite verses from the 
Bible and the hymns of Dr. Watts, was received with much 
shaking of heads by those who regarded themselves as conser- 
vators of the moral and religious welfare of the community. 

A reverend doctor of divinity in one of the suburbs of this 
city, in giving notice of a meeting to be addressed by a woman, 
informed his conwrep-ation that if they cared to hear a hen crow 
they could do so by assembling at half-past seven. 

In tlie historic evolution of the human race, the flashing of 
that cannon on Morris island on the morning of April 12, 1861, 
was not only the signal for the uprising of the people to pre- 
serve this government, but it was the beginning of a new era in 
the lives of the women of this country. 

The patriotic fervor of the mothers and daughters during the 
War of the Rebellion was as conspicuous as that of the fathers 
and sons. Brave and resolute were the white-robed angels of 
the hospital. To-day woman is not only the housekeeper, but 
the trained nurse, the accountant, typewriter, cashier, sales- 
woman, director of public institutions, teacher of nine-tenths 
of the pupils in the public schools, professor in the univer- 
sity, president of the college, doctor of medicine, doctor in 
philosophy, of law, of divinity, practising at the bar, preaching 



FIFTIETH ANNIVEESARY OEATION. 27 

from the pulpit, legislator, mayor, manager of commercial 
affairs, supervisor of streets, and is still the lady ! 

The passing years of the half-century have witnessed a mar- 
vellous development of ways and means designed to promote 
the welfare of the human race, such as the formation of associa- 
tions, societies, and organizations, humane, benevolent, char- 
itable, educational, and historic, which are based on one great, 
fundamental idea, that of brotherhood. In no other period 
have men understood as they now understand that no man 
liveth to liimself alone. In no other age have they compre- 
hended as they now comprehend that they are under obligations 
to their fellow-raen ; that the highest happiness is attainable 
onl}^ by bringing into sociology the ethics of the Sermon on 
the Mount. More clearly than in any former period do men un- 
derstand that the enduring monument to their memory is not 
the marble that may be erected above their mouldering forms, 
but rather the benefaction that promotes the welfare of those 
who may come after them. Men who have accumulated large 
possessions of material things are beginning to comprehend 
that it is not creditable for them to pass from this life with- 
out bestowing a portion of their estate for a hospital to 
relieve human suffering, for a library, school, or college to 
advance learning, or some endowment that shall be a blessing 
to coming generations. 

The historian of the future who may write of the century 
now closing will have abundant material for philosophic treat- 
ment. History in the past has been in a large degree what 
kings and potentates have done ; history in this century is 
an account of what the people have accomplished. Our per- 
spective on this Patriot's Day, in this historic edifice, includes 
the figures of Samuel Adams, Joseph Warren, and their com- 
patriots of the Revolutionary period. The perspective of him 
who fifty years hence may stand where I am standino-, and 
address the members of this Society, will include the fio-ures of 
Webster, Everett, Choate, Winthrop, Sumner, Wilson, of this 
Commonwealth, as moulding and shaping the Republic for 
Union and Liberty. To the historian of the future, iu litera- 
ture, the stars of the Elizabethan age will not surpass in lustre 
Emerson, Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, and Holmes. A 



28 N. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 

procession of stately figures will move across the field of his vision 
in this Republic, including Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, 
Farragut ; upon the other side of the Atlantic not the figures 
which sit on thrones, but the uncrowned Gladstone, Bismarck, 
and Cavour. 

The philosophic historian of the future will note that dur- 
ing the half-century now closing the principle of arbitration 
has risen like a guiding star upon the nations, and is rapidly 
becoming an illuminating force in international affairs. A 
third of a century ago, one million men in arms were mar- 
shalled to uphold this government of the people ; that end ac- 
complished, the mighty armies melted away as the dew before 
the rising sun, and the Republic, by its example, stands to-day 
before all the world as the personification of peace. Science 
and invention, by making weapons of war destructive of life 
almost to the annihilation of armies, have become the allies of the 
Prince of Peace. 

International exhibitions, parliaments of religions, applied 
science, commercial unity, all are working to a common end, — 
the universal welfare. Abraham Lincoln in his second inau- 
gural uttei'ing the words " with malice towards none, but charity 
for all," voiced the growing sentiment of the age. 

Never in the past as to-day has the human race been so united 
in bonds of unity and brotherhood. Never before has the 
world's sentiment been marshalled as now in behalf of human- 
ity. In no other age has there been such a reaching down 
to recover that which we had deemed as lost. Notwithstand- 
ing Europe to-day is a vast military camp with millions of men 
in armies, the spirit of the age is for peace. The Hebrew 
propliets foretold the time when the sword shall become a 
ploughshare. The poetic seers of the last half-century voice the 
growing sentiment of the hour. Longfellow in the " Arsenal 
at Springfield " hears the music of the coming ages : 

Peace ! and no longer from its brazen portals 

The blast of War's great organ shakes the skies ! 

But beaixtiful as songs of the immortals, 
The holy melodies of love arise. 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSAHY ORATION. 29 

Whittier, contemplating the course of nature beside the wind- 
ing Merrimack, discerns that " life is ever lord of death," and 
Tennyson, penning the last lines of ^' In Memoriam, " and looking 
out upon the ever restless ocean, pictures the great event of 
the coming centuries : 

One God, one law, one element, 

And one far-off divine event, 

To whicli the whole creation moves. 

It is a historical fact that the world to-day is animated as 
never before by the song first heard on earth, above the green 
pastures of Bethlehem. Notwithstanding the iniquity of the 
age, the world is vastly better at this moment than it was when 
Charles Ewer and Wingate Thornton and their associates 
founded this Society. The historic revolution of the past indi- 
cates that it will be better to-morrow than it is to-day. The 
teachings of history are in accordance with the analogy of 
nature. On this spring morning the mayflower is exhaling its 
fragrance upon the hitherto uncongenial April air ; the lily will 
ere long unfold its golden petals upon the present ice-bound 
lake. From the first primordial cell to imperial man, wearing 
the likeness of the Creator, the evolution has been from lower 
to higher forms. The voice of nature, of prophecy, and history 
are in accordance with the longings of the world for the coming 
of a time when there shall be a consummate flowering of the 
human race. Grant, if you please, that this is optimistic ; but 
it is the optimism of history. During the eighteen hundred 
years that have passed since the Man of Nazareth in this month 
of April rose victor from the grave, triumphant over death, 
the banner of progress has borne this inscription: 

The Brotherhood of man ; the Redemption of the world ! 



30 N. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 



POEM. 



By Oliver B. Stebbins, Esq. 



OUR MISSION. 

There is a realm unknown to mortal ken, 
Unsung by poets and unseen by men, 
So vast no region could enclose its space, 
No countrj' compass it, no power efface. 
More populous by far then Earth's great states. 
Its bounds the world, to Earth's remotest gates. 
Within its vast expanse its people lie 
Safe from the storms of Life's adversity. 
Quietly resting in their boundless bed 
They occupy this Empire of the Dead. 

But though to living eyes this realm unknown. 
This hidden mystery may not be shown, 
The thoughts while living, actions manifohl 
Of those that dwell within may yet be told. 
The silent witnesses of an age long past 
May speak in papers, may show forth at last 
Upon recorded documents their deeds. 
And grow the clearer as the time proceeds. 
To aid this work and make the public see 
Ancestral facts as they were wont to be, 
This is the plan of our society. 

What changes since our record first began. 

What innovations in the life of man 

Science and art have made. So vast the field. 

Space would forbid me to relate the yield 

Of knowledge, wisdom, and increased resource, 

In the half-century's exciting course. 

Transport your minds to fifty years ago, 

When search was difficult and progress slow. 

See Thornton, Montague, Shattuck, Ewer, and Drake, 

Who on the records our first laurels make. 

Then Andrew, Whiting, Wilder, Dorus Clarke, 

Here in our councils made distinguished mark. 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY ORATION. 31 

Here Winthrop sat, whose mild and pleasant face 
And stately mien lent dignity and grace 
To our assembly. Here there also dwelt 
One who — excuse me — made his presence Felt. 
Here Paige and Slafter, Trask, and Hoyt, and Dean, 
All with us yet, time's changes here have seen 
Since the first years. Other brave workers too 
Their labors gave, the interest to renew ; 
But time forbids their many names to mention ; 
Honored they are, and worthy your attention. 
May their successors prove, by constant zeal, 
Worthy the fame the founder's acts reveal. 

To rescue facts from Time's destroying tooth ; 

Correct false statements and bring out the truth ; 

All doubtful issues to investigate, 

And bring the facts out, ere it be too late. 

Of local history. Off the family tree 

To prune the erroneous branches, and to free 

From all misstatement each tradition wrong ; 

Strengthen weak points, make certain records strong — 

This is our mission. And for fifty years. 

Through Fortune's smiles or frowns, through doubts and fears, 

Our work has progressed until now, when we 

Welcome you, friends, to this, our Jubilee. 

To you we look for kindness and support ; 

Your aid we seek and your assistance court. 

With your approval duty grows less hard ; 

Cheered by your smiles and warmed by your regard 

We still go on, and are, by your applause. 

More conscious of the justice of our cause. 



32 N. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 



ADDRESS OF HON. GEORGE F. HOAR, LL.D. 



I believe, Mr. President, it was Lord Brougham — no, it was 
Lord Lyndhurst — wlio said that Campbell's Lives added a new 
terror to death. This unexpected call adds a new terror to old 
age. It did not occur to me that I should be expected to say 
anything here to-day. But I am happy, in the absence of Pres- 
ident Salisbury, the distinguished head of the American Anti- 
quarian Society, to bring its greetings. I have been but a 
delinquent member of the Historic Genealogical Society. It 
has never been in my power before to attend a meeting. But I 
have read the " Register " from the beginning. I have no doubt 
of the value of the studies to which your members devote them- 
selves. Your name expresses two purposes. One is historic 
investigation. The other is tracing the descent of families and 
individuals from their ancestors. Both are useful and needful. 

The chief function of this Society is to preserve and make 
clear the history of New England as it bears upon the life 
of the Republic. I suppose that to-day more than one-third 
of the people who live in this country are men and women 
who have no connection, either of kinship or sympathy, 
with the old England from which our ancestors came. 
The glory of English achievement is not their glory. They 
look to other ancestry and lineage. They have other ideals 
and another pride. This proportion is growing larger and larger 
every day. Yet you and I mean to affirm and to hold fast to 
the fact that this country will cling to the traditions of English 
liberty and English law as they were brought over and handed 
down to us by the men who settled New England. Governor 
Stoughton said that " God sifted a whole nation that he might 
send choice grain over into this wilderness."' The United States, 
all of them that are and all of them that will be, shall forever 
and forever be the product of that seed. Your function and 
that of 3'our fellow-societies, is to preserve and to make known 
to the youth of the land the beauty and majesty of that history. 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY ORATION. 33 

We sometimes smile at the labors of the genealocrist. It 
sometimes seems as if he tried to persuade himself that he was 
engaged in an intellectual occupation while he is givino- his life 
to the lightest and the most worthless of all trifling. There 
may seem to be a certain absurdity in looking up the history of 
the twenty-two million ancestors, which it is said each of us may 
claim since the time of William the Conqueror. But I believe 
these labors are to furnish a great aid to science in ascertaining 
the important law of heredity. 

This life of ours is determined by two independent forces. 
We study the law of evolution. We study the rising of this 
race of ours from the animal to the human, from the vegetable 
to the animal, from the dead, inorganic matter to the vegetable. 
As we reluctantly confess that we have risen from the grass to 
the monkey, and from the monkey to the man, it seems as if 
our whole existence on this earth were a pitiful failure. It 
seems as if this new science in destroying the framework and 
setting in which imagination has painted to us the beauty and 
the glory of the great doctrine of Immortality, had destroyed 
everything in which we can find comfort, either in memory or 
in hope. 

Then comes in our genealogist, who, in giving us the list of 
our progenitors, shows to us the almost irresistible bias which 
seems enough to overcome the will and make the individual's 
moral quality inevitable and fatal, and banish the elements of 
freedom and choice from human history and human destiny. 

But then comes into view another truth, which the historian 
and the genealogist marries to the truth of which I have 
spoken. Outside of this force, there is a force which science 
cannot explain or understand — the spiritual side of man. Be- 
side the pedigree of the phj^sical and animal life there is the 
pedigree of the spirit. We like to find it as we trace the de- 
scent of the youth of 1861, from the men and women of the 
Revolution, or the men and women of the great Puritan days 
in the inheritance of lineage and blood. But it is not confined 
to that inheritance. What has modern science to tell us of these 
forces, which burst the limitations of race, which break the 
chains of habit, and are more powerful than the inherited 
physical and moral forces of all the generations ? Tell me, Mr. 



34 N. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 

Darwin, why is it that every man and woman in this audience 
would rather die than to have his neighbors believe he has done 
a base action, even if he will never suifer physically an atom 
thereby ? Explain the patriotism of the men who fell at Con- 
cord on this anniversary we celebrate to-day ? Did the spirits 
of those who fell at Marathon and Thermopylae whisper to 
their spirits ? Has your doctrine anything to tell us about that ? 
Do you know that with the bias which came to you, or to me, 
from your ancestor, or mine, there came also a potent force 
speaking from the souls of the heroes of old ? The genealogist 
is to tell us something about this. From what mother or father 
came the greatness of Webster and Sumner ? From what father- 
hood and motherhood came the virtues that adorned those 
lives ? When you have answered these things, you have solved 
the great problem of life. They have just dug up, in some of 
their researches in Greece, the bodies of three hundred and ninety 
Greek youtlis who fell in the battle of Chseronsea, where the 
power of the democracy went down, whose fateful news cost the 
life of the aged Isocrates — 

" That dishonest victory 
At Chaeronaea, fatal to Liberty, 
Killed with report that old man eloquent." 

They found the bodies of these youths buried side by side, 
wdth their rings and chains about them, adorned as for a 
banquet. Judging from the formation of the bones, every one 
of them was under twenty-five years old. They found the broken 
ribs and the marks of the sword-thrust, or spear-thrust. What 
was it — perhaps the men who fought upon the 19th of April 
could have told us — what was it that led these youths to go 
as cheerfully to their deaths as to their marriage feasts ? There 
is something in this about which science has not yet told us. 

There is something in this which did not come to us from the 
grass or the raollusk or the monkey. I hope the scholars of 
this Society will not forget it. It is the bond which holds this 
country of ours together. Patriotism, love of home, love of 
woman, love of honor, love of justice. These are the things 
of which the 19th of April is the perpetual witness, and of 
which the mere student of the physical side of man's nature has 
nothing to say. 



FIFTIETH AI^NIVERSARY ORATION. 



35 



ADDRESS OF CURTIS GUILD, ESQ., 

President of the Bostonian Society. 



I congratulate you, Mr. President, in behalf of the Society 
which I have the honor to represent, upon the success of your 
time-honored institution, and am glad to participate in the cele- 
bration of your fiftieth anniversary. 

I need not dilate upon the importance of preserving historical 
records correctly. There is work to do in the preservation of 
correct records of the history that we are now making every day, 
as well as in the correction of errors and the supplying omissions 
in past records. The difficulties in supplying inaccuracies or 
omissions in the early history of the country that are encoun- 
tered by the historian of to-day, should prompt him to leave 
behind a clear and correct record for those who are to succeed 
him in future generations. 

The great advantage that this Society has been to the com- 
munity in the preservation of valuable historic records of our 
early colonial history and the genealogy of families, is patent to 
us all, and has been of the greatest value to historian, student, 
and scholar. Its value has become more appreciated by the 
general public as the country has increased in years. All honor, 
sir, to the founders of this Society, and to others of its members 
whose names you have referred to as diligent workers in its 

ranks. 

It is especially appropriate that this anniversary should be 
celebrated in this edifice hallowed by associations of the Ameri- 
can Revolution. Here through this window came Warren to 
deliver his address ; there, in that balcony, once stood General 
Washington ; and here while citizens were listening to patriotic 
words, they heard the shouts of the " Mohawks," as the disguised 
citizens called themselves, on their way to throw the tea into 
Boston Harbor ; opposite stood the house in which Franklin was 
born ; but a short distance away, at the head of State street, 



36 N. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 

stands the old State House, whose walls have resounded with 
the voices of Otis, and Adams, and Hancock, and where inde- 
pendence was born. From its balcony the Declaration of 
Independence was read ; from its windows Washington reviewed 
the troops as they marched into Boston. State street was 
the scene of the Boston Massacre. In fact, old Boston is the 
very Mecca of the early historical scenes preceding and during 
the American Revolution. 

This history belongs not to us alone in Boston, but to the 
whole American nation. It should be the recognized duty 
of associations like ours to see that these events which are 
so important in the history of our country, and the deeds of 
those who sacrificed so much to establish this Republic, 
should be kept fresh and green in the memory of the present 
generation, and transmitted for preservation to those who are to 
succeed us. 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY ORATION. 



37 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



[From the Hon. Frederick Thomas Greenhalge, Governor of Massachusetts.] 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
Executive Department, Boston, April 2, 1895. 

Capt. a. a. Folsom, Chairman Committee, etc. : 

Deab Sir: The Governor is in receipt of your invitation to 
attend the fiftieth anniversary of the New-England Historic 
Genealogical Society at the Old South Meeting-honse, 19th April 
next ; and the Governor directs me to state that it would give hini 
pleasure to attend, but he has already accepted an invitation to 
deliver an address at Acton in the forenoon of the same day, and 
is obliged to send his regrets. 

Yours truly, 

W. A. Thomas, 

Private Secretary. 



[From the Hon. Roger Wolcott, LL.B., Lieutenant-Governor of Massachusetts, and a member 

of the Society.] 

Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 
Council Chamber, Boston, April 17, 1895. 

Capt. A. A. Eolsom, Chairman Committee, etc. : 

My dear Sir : Although I am steadily regaining my strength 
from my recent attack of pneumonia, I do not yet venture to accept 
any engagements of a public character. Otherwise I should cer- 
tainly hope to attend the services on the 19th. 
With thanks and regards, 

I am very truly yours, 

Roger Wolcott. 



38 N. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY:. 

[From the Hon. George von Lengerke Meyer, Esq., Speaker of the Massachusetts House of 

Representatives. ] 

Speaker's Room, State House, 

Boston, 18th April, 1895. 
Capt. a. a. Folsom, Chairman Committee, etc. : 

My dear Captain Folsom : I expected to attend the meeting of 
your Society on the 19th, it being a holiday, but am obliged to go to 
New York this afternoon. Regretting this, 

I am yours, 

G. V. L. Meyer. 



[From the Hon. William M. Olin, Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.] 

Office of the Secretary, 

Boston, April 3, 1895. 

Capt. A. A. Folsom, Chairman Committee, etc. : 

Dear Captain : I am very sorry that having accepted an invita- 
tion for the 19th, at Acton, I cannot attend the fiftieth anniversary 
of the formation of the New-England Historic Genealogical Society, 
at the Old South Meeting-house, in accordance with your invitation. 
Please accept my thanks for your courtesy, and believe me. 

Always sincerely yours, 

Wm. M. Olin. 



[From the Hon. D. Russell Brown, Governor of Rhode Island.] 

State of Rhode Island, 
Executive Department, Providence, April 15, 1895. 

Capt. A. A. Folsom, Chairman Committee, etc. : 

Dear Sir : I am directed by Governor Brown to acknowledge 
the courtesy of your invitation to attend the fiftieth anniversary of 
the New-England Historic Genealogical Society, and to express his 
regret that his public engagements will not permit of his being 
present. 

Yours respectfully, 

R. W. Jennings, 

Executive Secretary. 



FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY ORATION. 39 

[From the Hon. Edward Upton Curtis, Mayor of the City of Boston.] 

Mayor's Office, City Hall, 

Boston, 28th March, 1895. 
Capt. a. a. Folsom, Chairman Com7nittee, etc. : 

Dear Sir : His Honor the Mayor has received the cordial 
invitation to attend the fiftieth anniversary meeting of the New- 
England Historic Genealogical Society ; and he regrets that his 
official duties will make it impossible for him to accept. 

Yours very truly, 

Courtney Guild, 

Mayor^s Secretary. 

[From the Hon. Winslow "Warren, Collector of the Port of Boston.] 

Custom House, Office of the Collector, 

Boston, April 9, 1895. 
Capt. A. A. Folsom, Chairman Committee, etc. : 

Dear Sir : I regret very much that other engagements, April 
19, will prevent my acceptance of your kind invitation for that day. 
It would give me great pleasure to join with you in what will 
doubtless prove a very interesting occasion. 

I am very truly yours, 

Winslow Warren. 



[From the Rev. Lucius Robinson Paige, D.D., the first elected member of the Society, and 
the oldest living member.] 

Cambridgeport, April 17, 1895. 
Capt. A. A. Folsom, Chairm,an Com.mittee, etc. : 

Dear Sir : I cordially thank you for inviting me to attend the 
approaching anniversary of the New-England Historic Genealogical 
Society. 

As I was the first person elected to membership after its organiza- 
tion, it would afford me peculiar pleasure to accept your invitation ; 
but the infirmities of age press so heavily that I dare not encounter 
so great fatigue. 

With sincere wishes for the continued prosperity of the Society, 
with which I have been so pleasantly associated, and from which I 
have received so many favors for more than half a century, 

I 'am truly yours, 

Lucius R. Paige. 



40 N. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 

[From the Hon. George Sewall Boutwell, LL.D., Ex-Governor of Massachuaette, Ex-Senator 
of the United States, Ex-Secretary of the Treasury, and a member of the Society.] 

Washington, D.C, 23c1 March, 1895. 
Capt. a. a. Folsom, Chainnan Committee, etc. : 

My dear Sik : Except for the circumstance that I have accepted 
the invitation of the town of Acton to be present at their anni- 
versary exercises of the 19th of April, I should, with great pleasure, 
accept your invitation in behalf of the New-England Historic 
Genealogical Society, 

Very truly, 

Geo. S. Boutwell. 



[From Charles Francis Adams, LL.D., President of the Massachusetts Historical Society, and 
a member of the New-England Historic Genealogical Society.] 

Adams Building, 23 Court Street, 

Boston, April 18, 1895. 
Capt. A. A. Folsom, Chairman Committee, etc. : 

My dear Captain Folsom : It had been my intention to be 
present at the meeting of the ISTew-England Historic Genealogical 
Society to-morrow, both as a member of that Society and as repre- 
senting the Massachusetts Historical Society. 

I regret extremely to say that, at the last moment, I am called out 
of town to Newport, and I shall have to go early in the morning, 
not getting back until in the evening. 

Under these circumstances I regret extremely my enforced 
absence. Will you be so good as to explain the reason of it to 
Ex-Governor Claflin and other members of the Society. 

I remain, etc., 

Charles F. Adams. 

[From the Hon. Henry Cabot Lodge, Senator of the United States, and a member of the 

Societj".] 

United States Senate, 
Washington, D.C, March 28, 1895. 
Capt. A. A. Folsom, Chairman Committee, etc. : 

My dear Sir : I have received your invitation to attend the 
celebration of the semi-centennial of the Society in Boston on 
the 19th of April, and am very sorry to say that I shall not be at 
home at that time. 

Very truly yours, 

H. C. Lodge. 



FIFTIETH AISINIVERSARY ORATION. 41 

[From the Hon. John (Fonenter Andrew, LL.B., Ex-Member of Contjress, and a member 

of the Society. 

32 Hereford Street, Boston, March 27, 1895. 
Capt. a. a. Folsom, Chairman Committee, etc. : 

Dear Sir : I thank you very much for the invitation to the 
services to be held at the Old South Meeting-house on April 19, and 
it will give me pleasure to be present on that occasion. 

Very truly yours, 

John F. Andrew. 

[From James Junius Goodman, Esq., Vice-President of the Connecticut Historical Society, 
and a member of the Society.] 

45 West SIth Street, New York, April 11, 1895. 
Capt. A. A. Folsom, Chairman Committee, etc. : 

Dear Sir : I regret exceedingly that I am unable to accept your 
committee's very cordial invitation to be present at the fiftieth 
anniversary of the New-England Historic Genealogical Society on 
the 19th inst. An engagement on that day prevents me. 

I am sure it will be an interesting occasion, and I hope it may 
serve as a means to increase the vigor of the Society and the en- 
thusiasm of its members in its work. 

Yours sincerely, 

James J. Goodwin. 

[From the Rev. Edward Everett Hale, D.D., a member of the Society.] 

39 Highland Street, Roxbury, Mass., 

April 2, 1895. 
Capt. A. A. Folsom, Chairman Committee, etc. : 

My dear Mr. Folsom : At this moment I fear that I shall not 
be able to be at the Old South Meeting-house on the day of the 
battle at Lexington. If I can come I will, but I shall not be able to 
unless I have freed myself from some engagements. 

Truly yours, 

Edward E. Hale. 

[From Mrs. Andrew Bigelow, daughter of the Hon. Marshall Pinckney Wilder, LL.D., 
formerly President of the Society. 

Southboro', Mass., April 16, 1895. 
Capt. A. A. Folsom, Chairman Committee, etc : 

Dear Sir : I regret exceedingly that my convalescence prevents 
my accepting your polite invitation to be present in person at the 



42 N. E. HISTORIC GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY. 

fiftieth anniversary of the Society of which my hoiiored father was 
an active officer for twenty years. 

Please accept my congratulations that those members who were 
co-laborers with him, and others since enlisted, are accomplishing 
so much, not only to hold the interest of the community of to-day, 
but to perpetuate for generations to come the main objects of the 
Society — " In Memoriam MaJoru7n.." 

Very respectfu.lly, 

Mrs. Andrew Bigelow. 



[From the Rev. Edward A. Rand, A.M., President of the Watertown, Mass., Historical 

Society.] 

Watertown, April 18, 1895. 
Capt. a. a. Folsom, Chairman Conimittee, etc. : 

My dear Captain Folsom : Many thanks for invitation to the 
anniversary of the New-England Historic Genealogical Society. I 
hope to be present. The Watertown Society through me, I know, 
would like to send its congratulations on the excellent work done, 
and many wishes for a future still more abundant in usefulness. 
Yours has been a grand work. 

Heartily yours, 

Edward A. Rand. 



[Telegram received at the Old South Meeting-house from the Hon. Joseph Wiliamson, A.M., 
for eleven years Vice-President of the Society for the State of Maine.] 

Belfast, Me., April 19, 1895. 
Regret that professional engagements detain me from the anni- 
versary to-day. 

Joseph Williamson. 



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